10 Best (and Worst) Performing Words in Email Subject Lines

If you want to boost engagement with your email campaigns, it helps to say “thank you” in the subject line, according to a recent report from Adestra.

The report was based on data from more than 3 billion attempted email sends that were part of 125,000 global campaigns sent by brands in four industries (retail/B2C, conferences/events, media/publishing, and B2B). The researchers selected the 300 most popular single words, characters, and two-word phrases and then looked at the relative lift or decay of each term versus the average.

As the report notes, the results only provide a “broad interpretation of the causal effects of individual words”; that is, they are a general overview of average performance and the terms won’t always work for every brand.

Overall, email subject lines that include the words “thank you” have the highest above-average engagement levels (+62%)—perhaps because many automated, transactional messages include this phrase, such as email receipts sent by brands after customers complete online purchases.

Check out the full report for results by category, as well as for the specific engagement metrics (open rate, CTR, unsubscribe rate, etc.) of individual words.

About the research: The report was based on data from more than 3 billion attempted email sends that were part of 125,000 global campaigns sent by brands in four industries (retail/B2C, conferences/events, media/publishing, and B2B).

Ayaz Nanji is an independent digital strategist and the co-founder of Inbound ContentWorks, a marketing agency that specializes in content creation for businesses and brands. He is also a research writer for MarketingProfs. His past experience includes working for Google/YouTube, the Travel Channel, AOL, and the New York Times.

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